Jype

Robben has a contract till 2018. edit: Ah nevermind, read your earlier post. Is that true though, haven't read it anywhere?

Pretty sure the talk is about a loan with Chalobah signing a new contract before going out. Personally would prefer to keep him as 4th choice CM though.

What a fucking season, never expected this after the shambles of last season. Loving every minute of it, bring on Arsenal and let's smash those cunts to do the double.

Or 3- Arsenal tell him to fuck off, pack his bags and move to France, Germany, Italy or Spain. If he doesn't comply, they let him rot with the reserves. They probably wouldn't go through with freezing him out till contract expiration because they don't exactly come across as a club willing to miss out on a big payday but then again, I doubt Sanchez would be SO desperate for a Chelsea move that he'd reject the likes of PSG or Bayern if they come in for him and they're the only clubs Arsenal were willing to do business with.

Sounds like a fake quote, no way he'd say that mid-season.

Spanish media are so obviously desperate for Hazard to move there, that's why they keep writing about him day after day. Their hope is that after seeing all those articles Madrid fans start to want him too and that would force Perez to try and sign him. Absolutely no real evidence of there being any developments or else we would've heard something in the English media too. Just offer both Hazard and Courtois new contracts as soon as the title is sealed and start looking towards building the team for next season.

PEDRO!

0-3, Costa to score two. Early goal is key. Delighted to see Aké and Zouma starting.

Exactly. He now has one more goal in the PL than Costa but looking deeper in the statistics we can see that Costa has scored in 14 different games and Swansea away is the only time he's scored more than one goal. Lukaku on the other hand has 16 goals divided over ten matches. Hitting 3-4 goals in a match every once in a while is all well and good but call me crazy when I'd much rather have a reliable one goal a game kind of striker who scores the same amount of goals divided evenly over the course of a season and doesn't go missing for long periods of time. That being said, Lukaku has definitely surprised me and he's been a lot better this season than last year from what I've seen. Maybe it's just a result of Everton having a better manager than Martinez but maybe he has also improved as a player, I don't know because I haven't watched Everton enough to say for sure. If Costa is really going to leave in the summer as is rumoured in the media, the club could do a lot worse than buying Lukaku for a replacement. Someone like Aubameyang would obviously be the ideal choice tho.

Begovic - Cahill, JT, Zouma - Aké, Cesc, Chalobah, Pedro - RLC, Willian, Batshuayi That's what I'd go with from the start. Musonda and Kenedy can come on from the bench if Conte has decided to keep them and not loan out.

Too much drama with Costa. Great player but not sure if it's worth it in the end. Best case scenario would be to keep him till the summer with him banging in goals for the club's title hunt and then cash in after the season.

Team will rarely win anything significant by signing just inexperienced kids with big potential, never a bad idea to balance things out with a couple experienced world class players. Vidal is turning 30 by next season but that's hardly too old, he should have at least a good 3-4 years in him and he already knows Conte's system well so would assume adaptation period to be minimal. Vidal or Nainggolan would be perfect but don't think we'll get either. Can't think of any reason why Bayern would be tempted to sell because it's not like their season is going that well and they'd need a replacement, which is difficult in January. And even if he were to go, the player himself would probably prefer a summer move in off-season to get one more league title and a CL title push with Bayern first before moving.

Absolutely amazing if he goes for that kind of money. Not really a place for him in the currently preferred 3-4-3 cause he's too weak to play in midfield and not that well suited for the winger positions either (and is worse than Hazard, Willian and Pedro anyways). Wouldn't say no to £25M, let alone £60M. Christmas has come early for the club if this is true.

Remember when Nov-Dec was a horrible time for Chelsea and the slump always ended up with tons of points lost? Yeah, I don't miss those times either.

13 goals in 53 games for Chelsea, a lot of those as a substitute. Not a bad record.

Just how good is he at that RCB role? Gotta say I always imagined him playing a wing-back role should the 3-4-3 become a regular formation but Cesar looks perfect playing in a back-three as one of the CB's and Moses has been great on the wing too so right side of the pitch as a whole is very solid right now.

Would assume so, yeah. 1. Someone bets a sudden massive amount on Conte to get sacked which will cause all bookies to react by shortening Conte and drifting the odds higher for other managers. 2. Same person then bets an even higher amount on another manager to get the boot (like Bilic) and now gets huge odds compared to what they were just a couple hours ago 3. Profit, easy money. At least that's what I seriously hope is the case here. If the board were to actually be clueless enough to sack Conte after three bad results two months into the season and think they can do better under some second rate out-of-a-job manager who'd have absolutely no time to prepare for the season they're dumber than everyone thought and deserve all the abuse they've been getting their way and a whole lot more. If (and right now still a huge if) there's any truth to the rumors that Conte is close to leaving I'd guess it'd be more him handing in his resignation after the board not backing him enough in the transfer market than the board thinking he should be sacked. Interesting times ahead...

Gotta say, the lad has surprised me. He's played way more than I expected and done really well too. Maybe in his head Conte always had a plan to deploy a three at the back formation sooner or later and Moses fits that pretty well so that's one of the reasons he was kept in the squad. Not exactly as good going forward as some other wingers but fantastic work rate makes him a good option for the right wingback role if that's the formation we're gonna end up with, could be a real breakthrough season for him if he keeps his place in the team. Just hope the injury won't be too bad and he's back soon after the international break.

Gary Cahill, Chelsea captain. Let that sink in for a while.

Sacked in the morning? What an idiot, gets paid £3M a year by the FA and risks it all with shady dealings like this.

Courtois - Alonso, Luiz, Mikel, Azpilicueta - Kante, Chalobah - Hazard, Costa, Batshuayi, Moses Willian, Matic, Cahill and Ivanovic can fuck off.

Kind of agree. It's not exactly his fault that he's useless and in the end it's the manager that decides to play him but it really has gotten to the point where he should man the fuck up and tell the club he doesn't feel he's up for it anymore. It's not an easy thing to admit you're over the hill but if he cares about the club and his legacy here even a little bit he should do it. Gary Neville did it for Manchester United and retired mid-season when he saw that he was so obviously holding the club back. Ferguson wanted him to continue but the man just said enough is enough and hung up his boots. Pretty sure Ivanovic cares more about the paycheck to do that tho.

Now let's see if Conte is a man of his word. He talks a good game about ditching those who underperform and don't look like improving but now we'll see if he actually has the balls to do it. While we're waiting for Terry and Zouma to get back to match fitness play Chalobah, Mikel, Aina or pretty much anyone else at CB as long as it's not fucking Cahill. The little prick needs to be taught a lesson that it's simply not okay to give up five goals to the opposition in just three matches.

People already calling for him to get sacked? Are you serious? He's gotten some things wrong, that much is clear, but most managers needs time to figure out their best team and how to play them. The only thing that matters to me right now is to see how Conte reacts to these losses. If he keeps playing the same shit players that are so obviously not fit to wear the shirt and the results won't get any better, then yeah he deserves as much blame as the players do but if he's at least trying to turn things to the better by making changes to the tactics and selecting other players instead of the usual underachievers he gets my full support even if the results are still not as good as we'd hope. Way too early to make any claims about Conte but for some of the players at the club I'm pretty sure we've all seen enough and they're simply not good enough. If there's any justice in the world players like Oscar, Matic, Cahill and Ivanovic should never play for Chelsea again, they failed Mourinho and are failing Conte who mistakenly trusted them based on pre-season.

Courtois - Alonso, Luiz, Cahill, Azpilicueta - Kante, RLC, Fabregas - Hazard, Batshuayi, Moses Here's what I'd go with. Just a cup game so decent chance to try something new that is desperately needed but also a strong team because after two bad results it'd be vital to get back on track.